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The industry seems to have survived “Blood Diamond,” but could it survive a diamond industry “Sopranos”?
“Ice,” written by Christian Darren (“Hustle: The Pete Rose Story”), revolves around a family in New York’s diamond district …
[It] will be directed and exec produced by Vadim Perelman (“House of Sand and Fog”) and Mosaic’s Ilan Breil. New Frontier Films’ Evan Pinchuk is co-exec producer.
“There’s an old-fashioned crime aspect to this,” [AMC executive Christina] Wayne said. “The diamond industry has always been considered incredibly dangerous. This is a way to do a family drama set in a distinctive world.”
Well, it is indeed dangerous, but in the sense that there is always a danger of being robbed. Not really something to base a series on. If she means dangerous and “old fashioned crime” in the “Blood Diamond” sense, we could have a problem here.
I’d be interested if anyone out there has talked to the producers or writers for background.
I’ve heard talk that this show was pitched to HBO at one point. They seemed to have passed; we’ll see what AMC does. Keep in mind a pilot is not the same as a series, so this isn’t a go yet. And while the industry definitely needs more consumer attention, this probably won’t be the good kind.


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The RV industry will see renewed shipments growth in 2008, and the industryï¿½s long-term prospects look bright, according to Dr. Richard Curtin, Director of Surveys at the University of Michigan. Full Story
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In an open letter released on July 5, 2022, the three search engine chief executives outlined 10 principles to enable internet users to change their default search engine effectively.
The release, entitled “10 Principles for Fair Choice Screens and Effective Switching Mechanisms,” comes on the same day the European Parliament adopts the Digital Services Act (DSA).
This groundbreaking political agreement aims to protect consumers by establishing a new standard to hold dominant online platforms, or gatekeepers, liable for illegal and harmful content. Companies designated as gatekeepers include Google, Meta, and Twitter.
Fair Choice Seeks to Break Away from Gatekeeper Defaults
The letter, signed by Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo, Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, and Corinne Lejbowicz, president of Qwant, calls for a set of 10 “common-sense” principles that will improve online user experience.
The executives state in the letter:
“Choice screens and effective switching mechanisms are crucial tools that empower users and enable competition in the search engine and browser markets. Without strict adherence to both clear rules and principles for fair choice screens and effective switching mechanisms, gatekeeping firms could choose to circumvent their legal obligations.”
The principles outlined suggest that users should have a choice screen for search engines, web browsers, and virtual assistants upon initial platform use. They also call for these screens to be offered periodically, at any time when “users are in the mindset to change core services, and major software updates can reset or affect gatekeeper-controlled search and browser default settings.”
It also stressed switching services should be applied across access points, be prominently displayed as top-level settings, and be free of charge.
Adoption Could Cut into Google’s Market Share
Should these principles be adopted, it could lead to the signatory companies and other search engines claiming a more significant piece of the search engine market. Google currently accounts for more than 90% of all internet searches worldwide.
This could have rippling effects through the search engine optimization and digital marketing industries, as optimization tactics would have to be adjusted for these other algorithms.
However, one of the conditions of the DSA is to enforce increased transparency measures on online platforms, including revealing how algorithms work for recommendations. The goal is to create a more level playing field between gatekeepers and smaller companies.
Additionally, as the three signatories, along with other smaller search engines, do not collect personal data about users, digital marketers would be required to find other means of targeting display ads, PPC, and other campaigns that rely on Google data.
Featured Image: VectorMine/Shutterstock


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Video: 2018 IndyCar Aero Kit Safety The universal aero kit that will be used by all Verizon IndyCar Series competitors in 2018 features some significant safety innovations. INDYCAR reporter and tech expert Jon Beekhuis explains.
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independent internet online publication and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed
by IndyCar, NASCAR, FIA, or any series sponsor.
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A warehouse used by Nottinghamshire pet food giant Armitage Pet Care has been sold after the company outsourced its storage and distribution operation.
The Colwick-headquartered firm, which holds a royal warrant as pet food manufacturer to the Queen, produces brands including Good Boy, Wafcol and Wild Bird.
Its 51,610 sq ft distribution centre on the Colwick Industrial Estate has now been taken on by construction firm JRL Group.
JRL already has a base on the estate and the purchase of the warehouse will facilitate its expansion in Nottingham.
Ian Muxlow, director in the commercial team at Savills Nottingham, said: "Situated in a well-established commercial location and providing excellent access to the A612 Colwick Loop Road, the former Armitage Distribution Centre presented the purchaser with an excellent opportunity to continue to grow its business within the local area.
"From launch to completion the sale took just three months, demonstrating the strong demand for industrial stock within Nottingham. Sizeable available freehold units remain a rare occurrence, which is why we managed to secure a good price on behalf of our client."
Mr Muxlow added Armitage had chosen to sell the site as it outsourced its storage and distribution to a third party.
The new location is in Bulwell and has 200,000 square feet of storage space.
A spokesman for the company said the new facility accommodates a recent period of sustained company-wide growth, in particular in its Good Boy dog treat brand, and provides sufficient space for future growth.
Mike Love, Marketing Manager at Armitage Pet Care, added: “In order to continue to meet the needs of our customers and support the growth of the business, we knew the time was right to scale up."
Armitage's history can be traced back as far as circa 1775 and it was granted a Royal Warrant in 1976.
As well as food the company supplies treats and toys.
According to the firm's latest accounts, for the year ended June 2018, it has a turnover of £36.8 million and reported a profit of £430,000.
To receive one WhatsApp message a day with the main headlines, as well as breaking news alerts, text NEWS to 07790 586202.
Then add the number to your phone contacts book as 'Nottingham Post'. Your phone number won't be shared with other members of the group.


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Nvidia’s GeForce Now could be a cloud gaming service that permits you to play video games saved on devoted GeForce graphics-enabled PCs throughout a wide selection of units. Whereas it permits you to play PC video games you already personal, the sport writer should permit it on the service. “At the moment, Nvidia is revealing that Activision Blizzard is not taking part in ball, knocking down its catalog of video games together with Overwatch, WoW, and the Name of Responsibility sequence,” experiences The Verge. From the report: Which means one of many service’s largest publishers, in addition to its Battle.web catalog of video games, will not be obtainable only a week after the service’s formal launch — a launch that was already lacking many video games from Capcom, EA, Konami, Treatment, Rockstar and Sq. Enix, all of which appeared to have pulled out after Nvidia’s beta interval ended. Nvidia would not inform us why that is taking place now, nevertheless it’s unusual, as a result of Nvidia beforehand instructed us it was contacting each writer forward of launch to verify they had been OK with their video games staying obtainable with the service. Did Activision Blizzard reneg on a deal, or did Nvidia fail to get permission? We’re ready to listen to again from Nvidia; Activision Blizzard did not reply to a request for remark.
In an announcement, Nvidia says it hopes to work with Activision Blizzard to carry the video games again, however the firm confirmed to us that issues are fairly cut-and-dried for now — you should not anticipate them to magically reappear after just a few days (or perhaps a few weeks) due to a deal. Nvidia additionally declined to inform us whether or not it might be open to sharing a slice of its subscription charges with publishers, citing the quiet interval earlier than its earnings. It is true that Blizzard, a minimum of, has an EULA that particularly prevents customers from taking part in a recreation on cloud gaming providers, however that does not appear to clarify this transfer. Activision’s EULA does not comprise something of the kind, and once more, Activision Blizzard did not appear to have any drawback with it through the GeForce Now beta.
Learn extra of this story at Slashdot.


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HTC has just launched a new version of HTC Sync that allows media syncing with the HTC Wildfire. HTC claims that the new version is "Now packed with new features, this version features a media sync that is compatible with popular media players available on your PC." It is admittedly a bit vague, as we don't know which popular media players it is referring to.
HTC claims that this media sync will be launched on other devices soon. If you have an HTC Wildfire, check this out and let us know in the comments.


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2 indicted at Fort Chaffee for fraudulent checks
Between Dec. 2017 and Sept. 2019, Amanda Komp and Tammy McCullough conspired to defraud the United States Department of Defense’s funds for Fort Chaffee operations. An indictment against the two women was filed on Aug. 26.
Komp was in charge of issuing payment to vendors on behalf of Fort Chaffee and her mother, McCullough, purportedly owned the vendor Triple M Enterprises.
According to the indictment, these two women “knowingly and intentionally devised a scheme to obtain moneys owned by Fort Chaffee.” Reportedly, the scheme comprised of Komp preparing payments for McCullough and her business, forging the signatures required and cashing the check to an account the women shared.
The women face three counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit theft of government money and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Bank fraud carries a penalty of up to a $1 million fine and 30 years in prison. Conspiracy to commit theft of government funds carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison or a $250,000 fine. The penalty for aggravated identity theft can average between 22 and 51 months depending on if the defendant is charged under section 1028A.
The United States is pursuing aggravated identity theft section 1028A which means the women are likely to face a harsher sentence if convicted.


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As regular readers of Environmental Leader know, there was a blizzard of corporate sustainability news in 2011. There are lots of lessons to be learned from the prior year, and some important implications for 2012. Some of the biggest lessons surround sustainability in the supply chain.
Supply Chain Impacts Can Swamp a Company’s Direct Impacts
2011 may be the year in which the importance of sustainability in the supply chain became widely understood. This was the year, after all, that PUMA issued what it billed as the world’s first corporate “environmental P&L” statement. In it, the company put a financial value on its environmental impacts and found them to be substantial, equal to nearly 72 percent of its net earnings. But more to the point, it attributed over 94 percent of its environmental impact, and the associated costs, to its suppliers.
Some companies have known for a while that their supply chains accounts for a major portion of their environmental impact. As Green Research noted in a recent study of sustainability goals in the pharmaceutical industry, GlaxoSmithKline reported in 2009 that life cycle assessment work revealed that its supply chain and materials accounted for 41 percent of its carbon footprint, whereas its operations accounted for only 19 percent.
PUMA’s work in translating environmental footprint into financial terms should help raise awareness of the critical role the supply chain plays in corporate sustainability.
Supply Chain Sustainability Goals Are Scarce
While some companies have long understood the importance of the supply chain in sustainability performance, so far few companies have committed themselves to specific supply chain sustainability goals. Green Research found that even among companies that set public sustainability goals, specific supply chain-related sustainability goals are still rare. According to the benchmarking work we did in 2011 in the banking, beverages, computer manufacturing, food processing, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications industries, fewer than 2 percent of the goals, by count, are supply chain focused. The vast majority of goals, 79 percent, focus on internal operations issues; 14 percent focus on product and packaging.
At some companies, the scarcity of supply chain sustainability goals may reflect a lack of understanding of the significant impact the supply chain has on a company’s overall environmental footprint. But it also reflects the fact that companies do not like to set goals in areas where they lack direct control. And many companies feel they lack control over the environmental performance of their supply chain.
Sustainability Performance in the Supply Chain Is Poor
Figure 1 Sustainability Maturity Tiers (Source: Green Research)
The lack of specific supply chain sustainability goals, and limits to control over suppliers, are among the reasons many sustainability executives rate their companies supply chain sustainability performance as poor. Green Research’s annual sustainability executive survey asked executives about their companies’ level of excellence and maturity in each of a list of key sustainability issues. We classified sustainability issues in tiers according to the level of maturity that companies have achieved in dealing with them. Tier I issues are those where a majority of sustainability executives see their companies leading. These include greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, recycling, and solid waste. Most companies are not leaders on Tier II issues, even though some companies perform strongly on them. For each Tier II issue, between two thirds and 80 percent of companies consider themselves either average performers or leaders, and over 90 percent have begun to tackle the issue. Tier II issues include paper use, water and packaging. Tier III issues see a lot of average performers but also many companies that have done little or nothing about the issue. Supply chain sustainability falls in Tier III, along with more esoteric issues such as biodiversity and conflict minerals. Over a third of respondents to our survey said they have a “long way to go” on supply chain sustainability; about as many considered their companies to be average performers. And 21 percent considered their companies to be leaders.
Sustainability Executives Have Little Influence over Supply Chain Policies
Sustainability executives generally have substantial influence over areas such as communications and external affairs at their companies. But when it comes to other corporate functions such as procurement and supply chain, they carry less sway. Over a quarter of respondents to our annual survey say they have little or no influence over supply chain policies or procedures at their company and another half have moderate influence. In fact, sustainability execs say they have less influence over supply chain practices than over practices in nearly every corporate function we asked about except for product marketing, human resources and finance. It seems clear that there is an opportunity for companies, and sustainability execs, to improve their game when it comes to supply chain environmental performance.
Supply Chain Sustainability Will Be a Key Focus in 2012
All this is the backdrop for a key finding of our annual survey: improving sustainability in the supply chain will be one of the top sustainability goals for companies this year, behind only employee engagement. Seventy-three percent of the execs responding to our survey said their companies would be dedicating significant staff time or financial resources this year to improving the sustainability performance of their suppliers. This is a really important development.
I expect to see companies aim for closer collaboration with suppliers, adopt more stringent scorecarding, put a greater focus on ecosystem services and biodiversity, and apply the new Scope 3 carbon accounting standards (released in 2011) to their supply chains, among other initiatives.
How is 2012 shaping up for you?
David Schatsky, principal of Green Research, is a consultant and adviser to businesses on a range of topics, from clean tech markets to corporate sustainability best practices to business strategy in the Internet and information technology markets. Having spent almost a decade as an analyst and senior executive at JupiterResearch, a leading research and advisory firm focused on Internet business, Schatsky is an expert in business strategy, industry analysis and market research.


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The debate between sugar and artificial sweeteners has been a long-standing debate ever since the 1900’s. The first artificial sweetener, saccharin, was discovered in 1879 in a lab at Johns Hopkins University. Since then countless others including aspartame, sucralose, and Stevia have been developed. As more sweeteners were synthesized throughout the 1900’s they came under more and more scrutiny. Several studies in the 1970’s based on animal models, suggested a linkage between artificial sweeteners and cancer. These studies have mostly been disputed by follow up studies in humans.
Although a link to cancer has been refuted, this does not mean that artificial sweeteners have no impact on the body. In a recent article published by the New York Times, Marta Yanina Pepino, an assistant professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign stated, “The idea we need to get rid of is that because they have zero calories they have zero metabolic effects.” Various studies have shown that artificial sweeteners can disrupt the gut microbiome, blood sugar control, and influence glucose levels. Consuming artificial sweeteners can actually confuse the brain and the body because their sweetness signals the brain to prepare for an influx of sugar which then never arrives. This can not only disrupt the secretion of hormones such as insulin and cause glucose intolerance but also lead to a craving for sweeter foods.
For thousands of years humans did not consume overly sweet foods very often so sweet foods were actually a way to naturally regulate blood glucose levels. In modern times, sugar and artificial sweeteners have taken over the food industry and thus disrupting this. One of the best ways to get back to natural blood sugar regulation is to limit sweet foods and avoid artificial sweeteners.
For more information check out this great New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/.../artificial-sweeteners-sugar...


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Glasgow, Scotland – Robert Burns, Scotland’s beloved 18th-century national poet and songwriter, penned words in praise of it. Winston Churchill, Britain’s war-time prime minister, breakfasted on it. And Robert Mitchum, screen legend and Hollywood hell-raiser, often got into trouble because of it.
Scotch whisky, made only in Scotland, is a drink that has devotees across the globe. It has seen off world travails and even prohibition in the US to become the planet’s most sought-after international spirit with, in 2017, a UK export value of 4.36bn pounds ($5.65bn).
But this very Scottish industry is facing a new challenge – Brexit.
The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) trade body was not unique among UK industry in supporting a Remain vote.
Business hates uncertainty – and the European Union accounts for over 30 percent of overseas Scotch whisky sales.
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, after most people in England and Wales – unlike those in Scotland and Northern Ireland – voted to leave the bloc.
If there is no deal agreed to govern that exit, then Britain is going to be trading with the EU and the rest of the world, on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms.
“There is a risk of losing benefits, including lower tariffs, secured through the EU’s bilateral trade deals with markets representing around 10% of Scotch exports,” according to the SWA.
The group’s chief, Karen Betts, said earlier this year that a no-deal Brexit would impact customs declarations at the UK-EU border, marking a “significant change to the straightforward way in which Scotch whisky enters the EU”, as she warned of greater costs.
We want to be able to continue to export Scotch whisky to Europe and the rest of the world as easily as we can today.
David Thomson owns Annandale Distillery in Southern Scotland.
Despite harbouring reservations about the EU, the self-described “reluctant Remainer” told Al Jazeera that his vote to stay in the 28-member group was rooted in the hope of business prospects.
“My reason for voting Remain was because I feared greatly the situation that we now face,” said Thomson, 64, whose distillery produces fine single malt Scotch whisky in Dumfries and Galloway.
“The uncertainty is the very difficult part of this to live with.”
Indeed, as the clock ticks down towards the Brexit deadline, uncertainty has gripped all four nations of the UK.
‘Water of life’
The negotiations with the EU, conducted by Britain’s beleaguered Prime Minister Theresa May, have so far failed to find favour with Westminster MPs who have voted down her proposed Brexit deal amid disputes over the Irish border.
For Thomson and his wife Teresa Church, co-owner of the whisky business, Brexit has brought Annandale Distillery’s international links, not least with the EU, sharply into focus.
“We currently export our products to the European Union, duty-suspended,” he said. “There’s an agreement that allows us simply to put them on a lorry that can carry bonded goods across the North Sea and deposit our products, duty-suspended, in Germany and the Netherlands – but also in Scandinavia. And that is just so easy – but I think that will become more difficult.”
Thomson explained that he sourced both his “special digitally printed bottles” for their main product from France and corks and capsules from Italy.
“I’m allowing an extra 20 percent for the forthcoming financial year for purchases out of the European Union in anticipation of a fall in the [UK] pound and the potential for tariffs,” he said.
The Scots Gaelic term for whisky – uisge beatha, or “water of life” – is useful for understanding the affection with which Scotland and its people hold this amber nectar.
From Burns Night, the annual celebration of Robert Burns, in January to Hogmanay (or New Year’s Eve) in December, Scotch whisky greases the wheels of Scottish social gatherings like no other tipple.
“Whisky is part of our family, it is intrinsic to us,” said Rachel MacNeill.
She lives on Islay, an island off the West coast of Scotland home to 3,000 people, which currently hosts eight operating whisky distilleries – a ninth will fill its first cask this year.
MacNeill, founder of the Islay Whisky Academy, told Al Jazeera: “Your consciousness of the island just absorbs the distilleries. The distilleries physically look out to the sea – but they are like a lighthouse light that shines out to the world.”
The EU-supporting Scottish government, run by the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), which is today making provisions for a possible second Scottish independence referendum, is fiercely protective of the Scotch whisky industry.
Like most Remain-supporting bodies and individuals in Britain, it is fearful of the consequences of a no-deal Brexit, which would see the UK crash out of the EU without an agreement.
A spokesperson for the SWA told Al Jazeera: “Scotch whisky is a flagship export, with 39 bottles shipped from the UK to 180 global markets every second, and we are used to adapting to changes in the way in which we trade
“[But the] prospect of a no-deal exit is concerning. We want to be able to continue to export Scotch whisky to Europe and the rest of the world as easily as we can today, without having to deal with new trade barriers, the re-emergence of tariffs or untested customs procedures. To that end, we support the [UK] government’s Withdrawal Agreement.”
Countries like India, China and Brazil - these are markets that the EU as a bloc have generally not been able to fully capitalise on with all our exports.
But some industry leaders spy opportunities.
Sam Simmons is head of whisky at UK drinks company Atom Brands. He told Al Jazeera that the Scotch whisky “ecosystem was one built on optimism”.
“Countries like India, China and Brazil – these are markets that the EU as a bloc have generally not been able to fully capitalise on with all our exports,” he said.
He continued: “Trading in the EU has also probably caused problems with trading into the US. There’s a lot of barriers to Scotch in the distribution and sales regulations in the United States, and the UK becomes more likely, than the EU, to secure new deals in the US.”
Thomson also contends that the decision to quit the EU has opened his eyes to other potential markets for his small whisky producer.
“The market that I’m really targeting at the minute is Singapore,” said Thomson, who re-started production at Annandale Distillery in 2014 after it originally closed in December 1918.
He said the island state’s high GDP and existing whisky-drinking culture meant that Singaporeans were “definitely prepared to pay for premium products.”
“Maybe we’re just going to have to work a lot harder to win business around the world, he said, “which is maybe no bad thing at all.”
Source: Al Jazeera


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NASTT Ebay Auction Goes Live
For the first time in its history, a portion of NASTT’s annual Educational Fund Auction will be held online prior to the No-Dig Show, allowing interested bidders to bid on items on Ebay.
The auction supports student chapters, target research, training modules and other student activities. Since 2002, the auction has raised more than $356,000. Ebay has been added to the auction process this year, giving attendees the chance to bid on items worth $5,000 or more.
The Ebay portion of the auction is now accepting bids on the items shown below and will remain open until 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 28–just before the onsite auction begins at 6:45 p.m.
The 2011 No-Dig Show takes place in Washington, D.C., March 27-31. For more details, go to www.nodigshow.com


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E-commerce giant Flipkart on Tuesday said it is setting up a new local entity - Flipkart Farmermart - that will focus on food retail in India, as it looks to take on arch-rival Amazon in the segment.
This newly registered local entity ‘Flipkart Farmermart’ will focus on food retail and is an important part of the company’s efforts to boost Indian agriculture as well as food processing industry in the country, he added. “We’ve secured all internal approvals for the same already. We’re looking forward to invest more deeply in local agri ecosystem, supply chain and working with lakhs of small farmers, Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs), food processing industry in India, helping multiply farmers’ income and bring affordable, quality food for millions of customers across the country,” Krishnamurthy said.
The company did not comment on the investments planned for the new venture. Interestingly, Amazon had received the government’s nod for its $500 million investment proposal for retailing of food products in India in 2017. The American retailer - through Amazon Retail India - now procures and sells grocery items like packaged foods, cooking and other items.
Grocery segment accounts for a significant portion of the unorganised retail segment in the country. Estimates suggest the market to be worth about $200 billion in India. Over the last few years, players like BigBasket and Grofers have expanded their presence in the online grocery segment in the country as people became comfortable buying even milk and bread online. Flipkart and Amazon are also betting heavily on the online grocery segment that is projected to witness a strong growth over the next few years in India.
According to a report by Franchise India, the online grocery market is expected to be Rs2.7 billion market by 2018-19. One of the sources privy to the development said, Flipkart - through Flipkart Farmermart is looking at operating a full-fledged food retail business that will operate in the online space.
Flipkart will also look at cashing in on Walmart’s expertise in the food retail segment that accounts for a major chunk of the American firm.
E-tailer launches ‘video originals’
Meanwhile, Flipkart, announced its foray into offering original video content with the launch of ‘Flipkart Video Originals’(FVO). Integrated within the Flipkart Video platform, which was launched in August this year, Flipkart Video Originals will be produced and curated especially for the Flipkart platform. The first creator to join the platform is Academy awardee Guneet Monga. Guneet is on board as the official creator and curator of short stories for the platform, helping bring to life new-age storytelling for millions of people. FVO will make available bespoke snackable content that is both mobile-first and interactive in nature.


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Date: Friday, October 6th, 2023
Source: Air Cargo News
The air cargo market continued to find its way out of the doldrums in September, resulting in an increase in longer term deals.
The latest figures from Xeneta show that air cargo volumes in September were flat on a year ago and spot rates were down by 34% – the lowest level recorded this year.
Compared with August, volumes increased 6%, spot rates improved by 2% and the dynamic load factor – using both volume and weight – improved by two percentage points to 58%.
While the figures hardly indicate a huge improvement in air cargo’s fortunes, market declines to appear to have flattened out.
Meanwhile, the increase in rates was largely driven by capacity additions easing, rather than a surge in demand, Xeneta said.
Xeneta chief airfreight officer Niall van de Wouw said that the improved demand figures had resulted in shippers looking for longer term deals.
The number of shippers committing to airfreight contracts of more than six months in the third quarter rose to 34% from 28% in the previous three-month period.
“This is not a peak season, it is a sign that airlines, freight forwarders, and shippers are finding more common ground to enter longer-term agreements,” van de Wouw said.
“We previously referenced no macro and market currents to support an expectation of a peak season, and this is still the case. We also said if there was to be an uptick in rates, we would expect this to be mainly driven by the supply side than the demand side, and this also still holds true.
“The general air cargo market is entering a new phase where parties are not expecting the market to go much higher or much lower. It is finding its feet again.
“We see more longer-term contracts being signed and this only happens when people feel more comfortable about the now and the foreseeable future. It is easier to make a commitment now than when the market is on a sharp downward or upward trajectory. There is a firmer floor in place.”
Looking at regional performance in September, the rush ahead of China’s Golden Week holiday helped support an 11% month-on-month increase from China to Europe to $3.19 per kg, while China to the US was up 9% to $3.63 per kg.
“Staying in the region, Southeast Asia to Europe and to the US spot rates grew considerably by 22% month over month to $2.29 per kg) and 16% to $3.14 per kg respectively,” the data provider said.
“Within the region, Vietnam spot rates to Europe and the US rocketed 54% and 32% to $3.00 per kg and $3.70 per kg respectively.
“These higher growth ratios are partially due to rates growing from a low base and, on these trades, returning air cargo spot rates to the pre-pandemic levels seen earlier this year.”
It wasn’t all good news from the data provider – spot rates on the transatlantic declined and the performance of advanced economies remained weak.
Van de Wouw added: “The global air cargo market is still muted and has been flat at a global level now for three months in a row. September produced no surprises, with traditional seasonality pushing up demand over what we saw in August, and we would expect a similar trend in October with less capacity flying around.
“But in my conversations with shippers, forwarders, and airlines, I still hear very little hope of demand growth before Q3 2024 and for that to happen, we still need to see stronger consumer confidence and economic activity.”


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Account Takeovers (ATOs) and credential stuffing represent a huge threat to the retail industry. In fact, they pose major problems for any vertical in which customers tend to reuse passwords for multiple accounts. Password reuse makes compromised credentials even more valuable to cyber criminals.
Starbucks recognized this threat more than four years ago, before it was well understood by the industry at large. As Starbucks Director of InfoSec Mike Hughes said in a recent Shape Security webcast, “We started to put eyes on the issue in 2013, looking at it holistically as a problem for the industry and, as a member of the industry, something we would be facing and dealing with.”
Traditional Approaches Fail to Stop ATO
Before 2014, Starbucks relied on traditional security approaches such as throttle rate limits, web application firewalls (WAFs) and IP blocking via CDN bolt-on solutions. None of these worked against persistent and highly sophisticated credential-stuffing attacks. “We had short periods of small efficacy,” said Hughes, “but then came the retooling [by the attackers], and we wouldn’t be able to contain the attack for more than eight to ten hours.” The result was a Whack-A-Mole situation, with a new attack cropping up the moment the old one was blocked.
Shape Enterprise Defense contained the attackers decisively, said Hughes.”We were able to put blocks in place that had a lasting effect.”
Fighting Sophisticated Hackers Takes Total Focus
Shape’s total focus on security is key to its long-term efficacy, Hughes said. He characterized the blocking of bots as “a data analytics problem that needs to be addressed continuously, not a milestone where you achieve protection and then you’re done.” In Hughes’ view, the bolt-on solutions of CDN providers are not sufficient, because “their primary investment structures are around the CDN, not security.” Purpose-built solutions, like Shape’s, have the requisite focus.
Another differentiator for Shape is its advanced signal collection and analysis, which is necessary to deal with today’s hard-to-detect attacks. “If we look back to 2013 or 2014, we saw very bursty attacks,” said Hughes. “They had all sorts of flags. Now, the effort criminals will go to use a headless browser with tools such as PhantomJS to mimic signal telemetry is incredible. They are getting very advanced at masking.”
He also pointed out the value of Shape’s customer base, which includes banking and other verticals beyond retail — enabling Shape to train its ML models with the most advanced attack dataset and create higher efficacy countermeasures. “The broader footprint of other verticals that you can apply back to the data creates more efficacy. When you take a financial institution’s attack profile and risk surface for ATO and train the model against the one for retailers, you’re actually enhancing [your efforts] in a way that you can’t with a simple algorithm.”
With Shape’s Blackfish, Starbucks Can Identify Compromised Credentials
By adding Shape’s Blackfish product, Starbucks further bolstered its security posture. Through patented technology, Blackfish stores mathematical representations of known compromised credentials (not the credentials themselves) obtained from its extensive customer network. It can therefore identify compromised credentials in near real time, even before a breach has been discovered. This collective defense against fraud gives Starbucks customers proactive protection from the threat of an ATO.
“Blackfish gives us the ability to remediate customer issues before the customer experiences them,” said Hughes. “It’s a proactive approach to taking care of security and the customer.” When Starbucks becomes aware of a problem, it notifies customers and suggests an immediate password reset.
Securing Benefits Beyond Security
In addition to sustained efficacy in the real-time blocking of attacks, Hughes cited two other important Shape benefits. One was ease of deployment.
“There was zero effort required from the development teams to place the solution inline,” said Hughes, “and very little effort required from the infrastructure and data center teams. When you can go from no data transiting the devices to full block in less than two weeks, that’s a win. I have no other vendors who can get there that quickly.”
I have no other vendors who can get there that quickly.
A second benefit was reduced infrastructure load. “Looking holistically across retail, upwards of ninety percent of login activity is non-human bot traffic. That means you’re creating tremendous amounts of load. Blocking that means a significant ease on the infrastructure.”
Fraud Isn’t Going Away
The risk of cybercrime and internet fraud has become a fact of life for every transaction involving the internet, and there’s no end in sight. As Hughes put it, “The barrier to entry is so low, the return is so high and the risk of being caught is so low, this isn’t going away.” Starbucks is engaged in a long-term battle to block bots, ATO and credential stuffing attacks — and Shape plans to be there every step of the way.
[ Watch the full video ]
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Shape Security Blog authored by Shape Security. Read the original post at: https://blog.shapesecurity.com/2018/06/28/how-starbucks-combats-account-takeover-ato/


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Local restaurants remain open during quarantine
March 29, 2020
Local Businesses and restaurants have been adapting to new ways to stay open and support the community during the CoronaVirus. Multiple restaurants throughout the state have started doing curbside pick up for all take out orders. Many restaurants have even been donating to local Healthcare workers as well.
Farmington Naples Pizza has been making national news from their work by donating food to local hospitals and health care workers. Owner Kurt Kruczek gained inspiration after a friend of his in the restaurant business also started donating to hospitals.
Kruczek made an appearance on Fox where he stressed the importance of helping smaller businesses that are still open, whether it’s buying gift cards, donating, or order for take out if available.
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As for the hospitals, Kruczek stressed that he would love to see other restaurants start donating as well to health care workers. Naples has been delivered twice per day, a couple days a week to hospitals to attend to day shift and night shift workers.
“..I thought what a great way to contribute to what’s happening right now and maybe make it a little bigger and invite other restaurants to do the same,” Kruczek said.


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Outside the dressing room, the teachers could hear the little girl squeal with delight. Inside the dressing room, she had put on a black velvet dress and patent leather shoes.
"I just know," the teachers heard her exclaim, "the other kids are going to say I look so beautiful."
The third-grader had worn the same pair of ripped pink tights to school before coming to the Centennial Closet to Closet a few months ago. At the closet, she picked out eight new school outfits. The black velvet dress was something extra.
The Centennial School District is one of the metro area's poorest: Forty-eight percent of the district's 6,700 students are on free or reduced-priced lunch. For years, the Centennial Education Foundation, a nonprofit that raises money for schools, bought students new school clothes. But as the district's demographics became poorer, the foundation had to spend more money. Two years ago, after spending $16,000 buying clothes for students, the foundation decided to try something different.
Teaming up with the Centennial Transition Center, a school for 18- to 21-year-old special education students, the foundation opened a clothes closet. The clothes — all donated — are collected into a store run by students in the transition center. Twice a year, students from across Centennial come in with vouchers and pick out eight items.
The project is doubly beneficial. Students across the district get free clothes when they need them. And students in the transition center get work experience from running the store.
"I really like helping people," 18-year-old Nicki Houston says. "I always greet people when they come in. I just like it, serving people."
Houston also works an internship at Volunteers of America through the school. The experience of working in both is preparing her, she says, for a part-time job later in life.
The store opened last year, but already it's more successful than school leaders had hoped. Donations have been so good that students might be able to come three times a year. And last month, the foundation won a Payless Shoes grant to buy new shoes for 50 students.
That's no small present to some students. Just before the holidays, a physical education teacher at Lynch Meadows Elementary asked a group of fifth-graders what they wanted for Christmas. One boy said without hesitation, "What I really, really want is a new pair of shoes." Then he added, "Have you seen my shoes?"
The teacher looked down. His shoes didn't match.
Foundation board member Carol Plumeau heard about the Payless grant only the day before it was due. But another board member — Jody Bringhurst — rushed to finish the application. The nonprofit won the grant but had only a few days — all of them during the big snowstorm — to buy the shoes before school let out for Christmas.
Bringhurst worked extra hours, maneuvering Gresham's state-of-emergency snowy streets, to buy the shoes for students.
Determination such as Bringhurst's has made the clothes closet into something special. It doesn't look run down. "It looks like a store," says Kriss Rita, executive director of the transition center. "They get to shop, to try clothes on, decide what they want."
And Bringhurst sprays Febreze there every week, so it smells fresh, not like a used-clothing place.
The clothes are in style, stuff students would actually want to wear. But the closet constantly runs out of boys clothes, so Bringhurst uses money donations to buy boys items. "I sure have learned my way around a thrift store," she says.
Last week, Houston, the 18-year-old student, walked around the shop explaining all the work that goes into it. She pointed to the laundry facilities where she and other students wash the clothes. She showed off the accessories wall, where students can get an extra free item. She looked around. It looked good.
"It makes me happy," she said.
--Casey Parks; email@example.com


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Leading Kuwaiti businessman Mohammed Abdulaziz Alshaya says he is seeking to channel $3bn investments into Egypt over the next four years.
He made this announcement during his meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, who ended his visit to the Gulf nation Tuesday.
"We are eying more investments in Egypt," Alshaya said.
He said his group is planning to build a roughly 120-acre shopping mall in Egypt.
Alshaya is executive chairman of Kuwait-based M.H. Alshaya Co., M.H. Alshaya Co., a leading
international franchise operator.


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Amazon has today revealed its trading results for 2019 – reporting a 20% growth in net sales to $280.5bn compared to $232.9 bn in 2018.
The US retail and entertainment giant’s year-end statistics were reflected in a strong fourth quarter performance which saw similar growth of 21%, and ended with a 2019 operating income of $14.5bn – up from $12.4bn 12 months earlier.
Net income increased to $11.6bn – or $23.01 per diluted share – compared with $10.1bn in 2018.
Key drivers of this success included retail trade in through the holiday season, new investment in sectors like renewable energy, new Alexa technology partnerships with major brands, and acclaimed program creation bolstering the Prime Video platform.
Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said: “Prime membership continues to get better for customers year after year. And customers are responding — more people joined Prime this quarter than ever before, and we now have over 150 million paid Prime members around the world.
“We’ve made Prime delivery faster — the number of items delivered to US customers with Prime’s free one-day and same-day delivery more than quadrupled this quarter compared to last year.
“Members now have free two-hour grocery delivery from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market in more than 2,000 US cities and towns.
“Prime members watched double the hours of original movies and TV shows on Prime Video this quarter compared to last year, and Amazon Originals received a record 88 nominations and 26 wins at major awards shows.
“A huge thank you to teams across Amazon for their dedicated work to build, innovate, and deliver for customers this holiday.”
The fourth quarter holiday season saw customers order billions of items worldwide through Amazon, including tens of millions of the firm’s own tech devices. Echo Dot was its best seller.
Grocery orders have more than doubled in 12 months, too.
Alexa functions have expanded, while its tech is now being used in car brands including Fiat Chrysler and Lamborghini.
Its entertainment arms have seen Amazon Music customers grow to 55 million worldwide, and Fire TV now stand at 40 million active users.
Amazon Original won plenty of plaudits for original programming, while Prime Video scooped eight Golden Globe Award nominations – and in the UK, it offered live and exclusive Premier League coverage for the first time.
Amazon also announced six new renewable energy projects, bringing its total to 70 as it works towards its pledge to be carbon neutral by 2040.
Here in the UK, Amazon made major infrastructure and staff investments, creating 1,000 new jobs in Darlington with the opening of its state-of-the-art fulfilment centre, and creating 600 new jobs at a new corporate office in Manchester.
Nicholas Hyett, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says these latest figures show Amazon continues to invest in its future.
He said: “Amazon has repeatedly shown it’s prepared to sacrifice short-term profits for long-term gains, and these results are no different. The group’s delivered bumper sales in its retail business but seen profits only creep up as it invests in next-day delivery.
“However, given the scale of investments taking place analysts had expected profits to reverse, and the fact they’ve improved despite the extra spending is testament to the quality of the business Jeff Bezos has created. In fact every time we see a set of Amazon results there’s something new to get excited about.
“Prime memberships are flying, a nice recurring revenue stream that also does wonders for customer loyalty, while the group is increasingly providing services to third-party businesses as well. AWS is still the profit engine of the group but it’s no longer the fastest-growing division. The advertising business, rather unfairly lumped under ‘other’, looks to be beating the cloud business when it comes to growth and once at scale it should be pretty high margin too.
“Amazon is truly an embarrassment of riches.”


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Collector Car Show & Cruise To Raise Funds for Ronald McDonald HouseCharities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana
Chicago, IL – It’s not too early to mark the calendar for The Second Annual Chi-Town STA-BIL Kruze taking place Saturday, June 3, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. Car collectors are encouraged to sign up to participate in the event whereas car enthusiasts are urged to save the date to attend along with the entire family!
The Chi-Town STA-BIL Kruze and Car Show is a perfect way to kick off summertime activities in the city of Chicago. The Chi-Town STA-BIL Kruze will include a classic car cruise and rally. First, the cruise is a rare opportunity for cars of all makes, models and vintage to cruise up and down historic Lake Shore Drive from Wilson Avenue to 31st Street. The cruise route allows cars to parade past Buckingham Fountain in front of thousands of spectators showcasing their nostalgic vehicles.
Immediately following the cruise, pre 1981 cars will head to Soldier Field along Chicago’s beautiful lakefront to display their vehicles, socialize with friends and enjoy a variety of activities including family entertainment, car clinics, fabulous food and collectable merchandise displays.
The Chi-Town STA-BIL Kruze is delighted to announce their commitment to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana as its charity sponsor. One half of car show registration fees and 100% of the $5 admission fee for spectators will be donated to the charity.
- Saturday, June 3, 2006.
- Lake Shore Drive Cruise 8am to 10am.
- Car Show at Soldier Field South Parking Lot 10am to 3pm.
- Cruise is free and open to any street legal vehicle.
- Car show registration fee is $20.
- Spectator admission to car show is $5.
- 50% of car registration fee and 100% of spectator admission fees are donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities.
After one year of intense planning, the inaugural Chi-Town STA-BIL Kruze 2005 was pleased to see more than 600 show cars, over 1,000 show spectators and countless Lake Shore Drive cruise participants who all made the first Chi-Town STA-BIL Kruze a giant success last June. All who participated in the inaugural event are encouraged to participate again next year and tell all their cruising friends to do the same.
Jerry Robbin, Founder of the International Mercury Owners Association and the brains behind this unique event states, “Our mission is to bring a world-class automobile event to the City of Chicago that exposes the general public to the collector car world, in one of the most beautiful and historic driving environments. I felt that Chicago was in need of an event for both the auto enthusiast and the general public alike.”
While the cruise is free and open to all road-approved vehicles, there is a $20 registration fee to participate in the car show and it is limited to the first 750 “pre-1981” cars. There is also a section designated for Tuner and Special Interest Cars. To register online or for information on registering visit: www.chitownkruze.com or call 847.997.8624.
For More Information Contact:
Traffic PR amp; Marketing


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SEBASTOPOL—Many Japanese shy away from natto, the slimy fermented soybean found in Japanese cuisine. Yet Minami Satoh is on a mission to get Americans to embrace the smelly food.
Last month, Mr. Satoh's company, Japan Traditional Foods Inc., officially launched its organic, fermented soybeans under the brand name Megumi Natto. (Megumi, which means "blessings," is a reference to natto's nutrients.) Operating out of a tiny factory here, Mr. Satoh now makes about 700 packages of fresh natto a day, which he sells for $2.95 to $2.99 for about three ounces.
Nuts for Natto
"I want people to appreciate how deep Japanese cuisine is," says Mr. Satoh, 53 years old, who adds that if Americans like other forms of soybeans such as boiled edamame and tofu, then there must be a market for natto.
Natto is the latest Japanese food to try to find its way to the U.S. Many Americans already eat sushi, drink sake, and incorporate ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms and soba buckwheat noodles into their cooking. There were 14,000 Japanese restaurants in the U.S. in 2009, according to the Japan External Trade Organization, which has an office in San Francisco that helps increase awareness of Japanese foods.
But natto, identifiable by its brown color, gooey stringiness and musky, nutty scent similar to ripe cheese, could be a challenge for Americans to accept. Mr. Satoh is hoping that by coming up with new recipes incorporating natto—such as tomato-natto bruschetta—he can ride on the popularity of pan-Asian cuisine and entice people to try it.
So far, he is seeing mixed success. The Community Market in Santa Rosa says it started carrying natto three months ago and has sold three dozen packs so far. "They're selling really well," says Tess Herman, the buyer for the perishables department, considering that the natto packs are hard to find on a top shelf. Ms. Herman admits she herself doesn't care for natto.
Mr. Satoh acknowledges that his monthly revenue is tiny, at about $5,000. He invested about $400,000 to set up the U.S. operation and says he hopes to break even by the end of 2011.
One potential incentive for customers is the fermented legume's health benefits. Natto is packed with vitamins including the antioxidant Vitamin E, Vitamin B2 to improve metabolism, and a special enzyme called nattokinese to help dissolve blood clots. It's a popular diet food in Japan because it contains the same amount of protein as a similar serving of beef without the cholesterol or the calories: A three-ounce portion has 15 grams of protein and 178 calories. Frozen natto, mostly imported from Japan, has been available in Asian groceries in the U.S. for years. But Mr. Satoh's product is fresh, and he says it will keep in the refrigerator for more than a month.
Born and raised near Tokyo, Mr. Satoh used to run his father's steel-pipe company. In 2004, he invested in Yaguchi Natto, a small gourmet natto company in a neighboring prefecture. The company does about $2.6 million in annual sales, he says. Two years ago, Mr. Satoh decided to expand operations to the U.S. with the aid of a friend in Sebastopol, who helped popularize shiitake mushrooms in the country.
The Japanese-style factory in Sebastopol is small but pristine. Visitors are asked to take off their shoes and slip on light blue Crocs before entering the manufacturing and packaging rooms.
The natto is made by first soaking the soybeans overnight, then steaming them for about an hour. The steamed beans are sprinkled with powdered natto bacteria and placed in a special fermenting compartment. They are heated to about 100 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 hours, then rapidly cooled. The secret to good natto, Mr. Satoh says, is in choosing good beans and steaming them so they're not too soft or too hard.
In the factory, Mr. Satoh also makes another brand of natto that he sells at Japanese markets. In Japan, natto is commonly mixed with a little mustard and soy sauce and eaten over rice. But Mr. Satoh says he is trying recipes that might make it more appetizing for Americans. He has mixed it with olive oil and mayonnaise and tried it on bread, bagels and tortillas. He also recommends mixing it in Caesar salad dressing or with diced apples or avocados.
Mr. Satoh's long odds are evident at Ame. The Michelin-starred Japanese-inspired restaurant in San Francisco has offered Mr. Satoh's natto for the past year as a $2 option to add to a dish with cuttlefish, sea urchin and salmon roe.
"I've asked our wait staff to encourage customers to try it out because even if they don't like it, it's only $2 extra," says chef Hiro Sone. But even after the encouragement, only about 60% of the customers request it and most of them are people who were previously familiar with natto, he says.
Write to Yukari Iwatani Kane at email@example.com


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Video Display Industry Adopting Sustainable Practices, Manufacturing
The display industry has moved beyond green talk and is taking action – 80 percent of global electronic display companies have adopted environmental/sustainable practices, according to a survey from iSuppli Corp., CIOL News reports.
The global survey of 520 professionals revealed 83 percent of respondents said their companies have “green office” practices, such as using motion detectors to activate lights and recycling. Seventy-three percent of respondents said their companies are implementing energy efficiency programs.
The industry is also producing more green products. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, LG announced that it is setting records with a new 32-inch TV which uses more than 50 percent less power than the average 32-inch LCD TV.
Last year, Sharp said it’s solar-panel and LCD television technology is at the stage where one panel can provide enough power for the television for 4.5 hours per day without any additional electricity required from the grid.
Energy Manager News
- Senators National Energy Policy Vision Leads to a Hopeful Future
- Google Builds Data Center on Site of Old Coal Plant
- EPA Honors 3 Facilities for Combined Heat and Power
- Cheese Factory Installs Anaerobic Digestion
- Certification Program Established for Green Button Standard
- Diesel Genset Market to Reach $68B by 2024, Navigant Says
- Emulsion Mist Collectors Designed for Heavy Industry
- IKEA Plugs In Fuel Cells at California Store


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‘Gold’ has moved past The Beatles‘ ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘, though the Fab Four’s all-time classic 1967 LP still holds the distinction of being Britain’s top selling studio record, with Adele‘s ‘21‘ and Oasis‘ 1995 effort ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory‘ also in the Top 5.
According to the Official Charts Company, ‘Gold’ has now nudged ahead of ‘Sgt. Pepper’ by 15,000 units, making a total of just over 5.1 million sales since its release in 1992. “It feels unreal – outselling the greatest record of all time,” ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus has said.
Queen’s first greatest hits album, featuring many of their enduring favourites up to the year 1980 and later followed by two further editions in 1991 and 1999, leads the way with 5.9 million sales. Meanwhile, Adele’s ’21’ has shifted a staggering 4.6 million copies in the two years since its release.
- Live4ever Exclusive: 'Striving For a Legacy In a Fickle World' - Palma Violets @ SXSW 2015
- Drenge further preview new album with 'Favourite Son'
- 2015 AIM Independent Music Awards set for September 8th
- Graham Coxon has 'increased respect' for Damon Albarn after recording new Blur album
- Super Furry Animals, The Horrors, Augustines on bill for inaugural Forgotten Fields festival


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BEIJING (AP) — A group of prominent Chinese writers have demanded millions of dollars in compensation from technology giant Apple Inc. for allegedly selling unlicensed versions of their books in its online store, a lawyer said Monday.
The case is a departure from the usual pattern of U.S artists or companies going after Chinese copycats. Trade groups say illegal Chinese copying of music, designer clothing and other goods costs legitimate producers billions of dollars a year in lost sales.
Three separate lawsuits have been filed with the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court on behalf of 12 writers who allege 59 of their titles were sold unlicensed through Apple's iTunes online store, said Wang Guohua, a Beijing lawyer representing the writers.
The three suits together demand 23 million (US$3.5 million) in compensation from Apple, Wang said. Well-known novelist and race car driver Han Han is among the writers taking the legal action, he said.
Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based Apple spokesman, said that the company respects intellectual property and responds to complaints quickly.
"As an IP holder ourselves, we understand the importance of protecting intellectual property and when we receive complaints we respond promptly and appropriately," she said. She declined to get into the specifics of the Chinese writers' claims.
Wang said the Chinese writers' works was made available via the Apple Store without their permission, violating their copyright, and while Apple deleted some books after the suits were filed in January, some works quickly appeared again, apparently uploaded by developers that sell apps through the Apple Store.
"Some developers, with whom Apple has contracts, put them back online again," said Wang of the United Zhongwen Law Firm. "It is encouragement in disguise, because they did not punish the developers. The developers could have been kicked out. But nothing happened to them."
Apple has more than 585,000 apps available through its Apple Store, and according to guidelines postedonline, requires the developers themselves secure the rights to any trademarked material within those apps.
Wang said 10 other writers have also gotten involved since January but their suits have yet to be filed. In all, 23 writers have registered their complaints with Wang and claim that Apple sold 95 pirated titles.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported late Sunday that the writers were collectively seeking 50 million yuan ($7.7 million) in compensation from Apple but Wang could not confirm that figure.
Product piracy is a major irritant in China-US relations, but usually involves complaints that Chinese are copying American products.
However, it's not the first time Chinese have cried foul over copyright infringement by an American company either. In 2009, the government-affiliated China Written Works Copyright Society complained that Google had scanned nearly 20,000 works by 570 Chinese authors without permission as part of its digital library project, drawing an apology from Google.
For Apple, the latest case is just one of several legal battles being fought in China. The company is embroiled in a battle over the iPad trademark with Proview Electronics Co., a Chinese computer monitor and LED light maker that says it registered the trademark more than a decade ago.
Proview wants Apple to stop selling or making the popular tablet computers under that name.
Apple says Proview sold it worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 2009, though in China the registration was never transferred.


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The Longaberger Company headquarters in Newark, Ohio, is more than a building: It's a landmark.
In fact, it's listed on Trip Advisor as the "World's Largest Basket," a popular area pit stop. That's because it's shaped exactly like the picnic-ready product the company sells—complete with basket weave and handles. Unfortunately, the property's uniqueness (coupled with its remote location) made it a hard sell when the company downsized in 2015 and it went on the market for $7.5 million. After all, at 180,000 square feet, it would be a lot of office space to handle (pun intended), especially for a totally unrelated business.
Even after a price drop to $5 million, still no one bit, according to Bloomberg. But now, finally, the Longaberger Basket building (plus the 21 acres it sits on) has a buyer: Curbed reports that Coon Restoration, a developer based in Louisville, Ohio, has purchased the interesting piece of architecture for $1.2 million—plus a promise to pay Longaberger's more than $800,000 worth of back taxes.
"The Longaberger Basket Building is known all over the world, and I can't tell you how excited I am to preserve and renovate this building and put it back into use," Steve Coon, principal of Coon Restoration, said in a statement. "I have a big vision in mind to bring it back to life and keep the Longaberger story alive."
The seven-story structure was completed in 1997 and cost $32 million from beginning-to-end, reports Realtor.com. The company will reportedly work with Sandvick Architects to restore the building. No specific details regarding renovations have been released yet; offices spaces, a hotel, and other ideas have been proposed. But the team apparently plans to keep the quirky shape—handles and all.


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Samsung Electronics is one of the very few Android OEMs alongside the likes of LG, Sony and HTC, to have publicly declared its intention of following Google's monthly security update schedule for its Android devices. In keeping with its promise, the South Korean manufacturer has now reportedly started rolling out the December security patches to the unlocked versions of one of its latest flagship phablets, the Galaxy S6 Edge+. According to reports, the latest update is currently live in a number of regions around the world, including India and the Nordic countries. The update brings along the cumulative security patches for the month of December, 2016. At this point in time, there's no word on when the Note 5 will get the patches rolled out to it, as it is only the S6 Edge+ that is believed to be receiving the security fix for now.
As for details regarding the latest update, Samsung says that along with the Google patches, it is providing fixes for "9 Samsung Vulnerabilities and Exposures (SVE) items" as part of its monthly Security Maintenance Release (SMR) process. A number of other vulnerabilities that have also been supposedly been patched up by the latest update are not being disclosed by the OEM, ostensibly for security reasons. Samsung also says that voice-call stability will be improved by the latest software, and once installed, users will not be able to uninstall it at any stage. Earlier this month, the Verizon edition of the handset got its December security patch rolled out to it by the US carrier, and now, the unlocked version on sale in India seems to be receiving the software. Which means it shouldn't be long before the device starts receiving the update in most markets around the world.
It is important to remember that the update only brings along security patches, and not any new features as such, so people waiting for Marshmallow to be rolled out to their handsets will be disappointed. However, users of Samsung's premium smartphones will find it reassuring to see the company doing its bit to keep its users safe from malicious software, by proactively rolling out the latest security updates. Now, device owners will be hoping that Marshmallow isn't that far away in the horizon for Samsung's latest flagships smartphones.


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Medical equipment manufacturers cooperate to improve advocacy
…unchanged for several years. The three organisations have proposed a reform of the reimbursement system, a significant reduction in the VAT rate for these products and the introduction of a service fee for medical equipment shops, similar to that received by pharmacies.
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Galderma Unveils Bold Ambition in Neuromodulation at Liquid Live Event
Galderma, the emerging pure-play dermatology category leader, today hosts the first edition of its Liquid Live event in Dubai as a chance to discuss with clinicians the future of innovation in the field of neuromodulation as well as showcasing the latest neuromodulators from its aesthetics portfolio.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231013777100/en/
Copyrights - Sylvain Granjon
To mark the progress in treatment optimization and showcase its commitment to further driving innovation, Galderma has organized the first ever Liquid Live event. This premium experience will convene over one hundred of Europe’s leading aesthetics practitioners to immerse themselves in the future of the neuromodulator field. The Liquid Live event will include presentations from renowned experts on key data, the latest market trends and changes in patient needs, and sharing insights to advance the future of neuromodulation in aesthetics together.
A year on from the launch of Alluzience®, the first and only liquid ready-to-use neuromodulator in Europe with rapid onset and effects lasting for up to six months, Galderma is now getting ready to launch the product in 13 new countries1. Indicated for use in adult patients as a treatment to temporarily improve the appearance of moderate to severe glabellar lines, this launch opened a new era of innovation in neuromodulation. As a ready-to-use liquid formulation, it has the potential to improve safety and dosing accuracy compared to existing neuromodulators that require reconstitution, enabling more precision and higher patient satisfaction.
“Galderma is the leading innovator in neuromodulators and we are delighted to launch the Liquid Live event as an opportunity to convene leading experts in this field. Alluzience® has a unique profile and its launch in 13 new countries is another exciting step in our journey of driving differentiated innovation and expanding our portfolio.
Galderma is well-positioned to continue to build its category-leading pipeline in injectable aesthetics, with proven in-house R&D capabilities in medical aesthetics. This includes successfully developing RelabotulinumtoxinA internally as well as the world’s largest hyaluronic acid filler range, Restylane®. Along with Sculptra®, the first and original injectable poly-L-lactic acid collagen stimulator, Galderma’s offering in neuromodulators and fillers is the broadest, unparalleled injectable aesthetics portfolio.
Alluzience (abobotulinumtoxinA solution) is the first ready-to-use BoNT-A liquid neuromodulator formulation to be introduced in Europe. Alluzience is indicated for the temporary improvement in the appearance of moderate to severe glabellar lines seen at maximum frown in adult patients under 65 years, when the severity of these lines has an important psychological impact on the patient. It should only be administered by a physician with appropriate qualifications and expertise in this treatment using the required equipment. Dosing and treatment intervals depend on assessment of the individual patient’s response. The treatment interval should be no more frequent than every three months. For more information, please see the Summary of Product Characteristics2.
Alluzience is a product under license from Ipsen. Alluzience is a registered trademark of Ipsen. Galderma has an exclusive license from Ipsen to develop, promote and distribute Alluzience in the approved indication in Europe.
Galderma is the emerging pure-play dermatology category leader, present in approximately 90 countries. We deliver an innovative, science-based portfolio of premium flagship brands and services that span the full spectrum of the fast-growing dermatology market though Injectable Aesthetics, Dermatological Skincare and Therapeutic Dermatology. Since our foundation in 1981, we have dedicated our focus and passion to the human body’s largest organ – the skin – meeting individual consumer and patient needs with superior outcomes in partnership with healthcare professionals. Because we understand that the skin we are in shapes our lives, we are advancing dermatology for every skin story. Galderma’s portfolio of flagship brands includes Restylane®, Dysport®, Azzalure®, Alluzience® and Sculptra® in Injectable Aesthetics; Soolantra®, Epiduo®, Differin®, Aklief®, Epsolay®, Twyneo®, Oracea®, Metvix®, Benzac® and Loceryl® in Therapeutic Dermatology; and Cetaphil® and Alastin Skincare® in Dermatological Skincare. For more information: www.galderma.com.
1 Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia
2 Alluzience Summary of Product Characteristics, 2023
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Capcom Reveals Dragon’s Dogma 2 Scheduled to Launch March 22, 2024!29.11.2023 02:00:00 CET | Press release
Capcom Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:9697) today announced that Dragon’s Dogma 2, the latest game in the Dragon’s Dogma series, is scheduled to be released on March 22, 2024. With the launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2, Capcom closes out a stellar year of major title releases for its 2023 fiscal year. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231128898951/en/ Dragon's Dogma 2 is a single player, narrative driven action-RPG and the latest title in the Dragon’s Dogma series. The game features intricately crafted, gorgeous visuals powered by Capcom’s proprietary RE ENGINE that elevate its unique gameplay experience to provide a truly immersive fantasy world sure to delight both newcomers as well as long-time fans of the series. (Graphic: Business Wire) Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the latest title in the series, and the first mainline entry since the original Dragon’s Dogma was released in 2012. The game is being developed on Capcom’s proprietary RE EN
Rocket Software to Acquire OpenText’s Application Modernization and Connectivity Business28.11.2023 22:20:00 CET | Press release
Rocket Software, Inc. (“Rocket Software”), a global technology leader driving modernization for the world’s largest companies, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Application Modernization and Connectivity business (AMC) of OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX), (TSX: OTEX), which was formerly part of Micro Focus. The total purchase price is $2.275B. For decades, Rocket Software has been the partner solving complex IT challenges for the largest and most innovative organizations, across infrastructure, data, and applications. Rocket Software’s hybrid cloud strategy empowers customers to optimize their application portfolio wherever they are in their modernization journey, enabling them to bridge the gap to modern use cases without disrupting their mission-critical operations. This approach allows organizations to benefit from the mainframe's security and dependability while also taking advantage of powerful analytics tools in the cloud. AMC has been a leader in applica
NetApp and AWS Deliver a Nine Times Performance Increase for Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP28.11.2023 22:05:00 CET | Press release
NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the intelligent data infrastructure company, announced at re:Invent, scale-out FSx for ONTAP® file systems through its collaboration with AWS. Scale-out file systems offer up to nine times higher storage performance compared to existing file systems, enabling customers to run high-performance applications on AWS more quickly and efficiently. FSx for ONTAP enables customers to use ONTAP’s data management features for a wide variety of workloads, such as user and application file shares, relational databases (SAP HANA), data stores for VMware cloud on AWS and backup and disaster recovery. With the new enhancements, customers can now use FSx for ONTAP for a broader range of higher-performance use cases, such as high-performance computing (HPC), electronic design automation (EDA), visual effects (VFX) and film editing, life sciences, seismic analysis, machine learning, and generative AI. Organizations of all sizes are migrating on-premises workloads to AWS or deploy
Varberg Energi Selects Hansen to Power Intraday Trading28.11.2023 20:50:00 CET | Press release
Hansen Technologies (ASX:HSN), a leading global provider of software and services to the energy, water and communications industries, is pleased to announce Varberg Energi, a Swedish energy company, as a new Hansen customer. Varberg Energi, which has recently added physical-trading operations and balance responsibility to its services, will leverage Hansen Trade to enable this. The intraday trading solution within Hansen Trade will allow Varberg Energi to automate intraday trading operations and balance management. With Hansen Trade as part of its everyday operating infrastructure, Varberg Energi will be able to take advantage of physical trading operations without the need to spend significant time and effort on manual operations. Jens Nordberg, Head of Energy Trading, Varberg Energi, commented: “We have recently made a strategic decision to insource physical-trading operations and balance responsibility. Combined with our flexibility portfolio, we believe that this will create the ri
Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council launches ‘AI71’: New AI Company Pioneering Decentralised Data Control for Companies & Countries28.11.2023 18:16:00 CET | Press release
In an era of rapid advancements across artificial intelligence (AI), Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC) is making yet another bold stride with the launch of its new AI company, AI71. The entity builds on the Technology Innovation Institute’s (TII) Falcon generative AI models and will focus on multi-domain specializations while offering unprecedented AI data control options for companies and countries looking to self-host for greater privacy. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231128549220/en/ H.H. Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council launches AI71 along with H.E Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General, Advanced Technology Research Council (Photo: AETOSWire) The new AI powerhouse was launched by H.H. Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Cou


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A landmark study helps explain why Big Pharma is so afraid of the medical benefits of cannabis. The pharmaceutical and alcohol industries, both powerful influences in Washington, have long lobbied against cannabis legalization in order to protect their profits.
The recent study is lending credibility to the idea that medical cannabis can be used as a natural alternative to prescription pain medications, with nearly 100 percent of respondents saying they believe cannabis is helping them decrease their use of prescription opioids to treat the pain.
The study, which was conducted by HelloMD, one of the largest medical cannabis communities in the nation, and University of California Berkley, surveyed nearly 3,000 patients who use both opioid and non-opioid based pain medication.
The results of the study concluded that 97 percent of respondents “strongly agreed/agreed” that they could decrease use of their opioid medications when using cannabis. While 92 percent of respondents said that they “strongly agreed/agreed” that they prefer cannabis to treat their medical condition.
The study also found that 81 percent of respondents said they “strongly agreed/ agreed” that using cannabis alone was more effective than taking cannabis with opioids.


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Tegel Group Holdings Limited has appointed Bridget Coates to its Board as an Independent Director effective from 30 October.
Bridget Coates is an experienced company director holding both governance and executive roles across a wide range of industries. She is currently a director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and an advisory board member for the University of Auckland Business School. Bridget is also chairperson and co-founder of White Cloud Dairy Innovation Limited.
Bridget’s previous roles include directorships on the New Zealand Superannuation Fund Board, SKYCITY Group Holdings Board, Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Limited, Managing Director of US-based private investment firm 212 Equity Management, and Managing Principal of Fahrenheit Ventures, a consultancy specialising in US market entry strategies for consumer products businesses. Prior to this Bridget was the inaugural chair of business incubator, the ICEHOUSE, CEO University of Auckland Development and a member of the Council of the University of Auckland. In 2014 Bridget was awarded a New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to business.
Chairman David Jackson said the Board had undertaken an active international search for a director with the relevant skills across a range of disciplines required by the Board.
“Bridget comes to Tegel as a current and former director on a number of global reaching and listed company Boards. In addition she has a strong track record in driving international business growth through innovation, relationships, brands and marketing.
Tegel is committed to driving its domestic and export strategy and Bridget’s extensive experience and skills will complement and enhance the current Board skill set. We are delighted to welcome Bridget to the Tegel Board,” said David.


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PARIS (AP) — The new face of Paris Fashion Week is digital. With shows taking place behind closed doors due to the virus pandemic, some designers such as Julien Fournie are becoming versatile: getting their designs out to the public by making a film of their collection and streaming it online. The designer says he started out learning how to draw, but now he realizes he also needs to learn how to become a filmmaker. He was speaking at a behind-the-scenes preview of his spring-summer 2021 couture movie filming. The fashion industry — along with the retail industry in general — has been hard-hit by pandemic restrictions.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers have quickly approved the extension of the last remaining nuclear Russia-U.S. arms control, a fast-track action that comes just days before it’s due to expire. Both houses of parliament voted unanimously Wednesday to extend the New START treaty for five years a day after a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said they agreed to complete the necessary extension procedures in the next few days, according to the Kremlin. The pact’s extension doesn’t require congressional approval in the U.S., but Russian lawmakers must ratify the move and Putin is to sign the relevant bill into law.


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Staff and students from across the WIC and the wider campus gathered last week for ‘Friday drinks with a difference’. Held in the WIC Building’s shared staffroom, the inaugural WIC beer tasting built on brewing demonstrations held a few weeks earlier, and the scientific approach taken by the AWRI and University staff involved was evident in the tasting of the results.
Three beer styles – Wheat, English and American – were on hand to try. Mark, Jun, Tommaso and Lukas were kept busy pouring samples and answering questions from appreciative beer enthusiasts, some of whom were seen diligently taking notes.
The wheat beer station had five different wheat beers brewed using five different yeasts (German/Belgian/Saison/English and just for fun, the wine yeast – PDM). Three English ales brewed using 3 different English yeasts and another three American ales brewed using different hops (Australia/New Zealand/American) where also tasted.
At least 40 AWRI, CSIRO and University staff enjoyed the opportunity to mingle and try different beer styles – and for those working in wine research, the smell of hops was a refreshing change. It is hoped this exercise will become a regular fixture in the Waite calendar of events.


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Thailand Set For WiMAX 4G Mobile Trial
It is not the first place you think of to showcase cutting edge mobile technology, but Mae Hong Son, a remote province in the North West corner of Thailand, will be host to the country’s first 4G mobile service when a WiMAX trial begins in May, according to The Nation.
But what about 3G?
Thailand is still yet to hold its 3G auctions so this trial is very much for the future, though it is refreshing to see the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) look beyond the current 3G wrangles.
Should we be excited?
Yes, but don’t expect a change overnight.


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Canary Wharf Group is holding an evening of offers and promotions in its retail malls in November and is offering charities the chance to earn income from all the tickets that they sell to their supporters.
Canary Wharf Group’s Charity Night will take place held on Thursday 18 November 2004 between 6pm and 9pm. To “take advantage of exclusive offers, promotions, competitions, food and wine tastings and spotlight fashion shows” at the 200 bars, shops and restaurants, shoppers must buy a ticket from one of the participating charities. Tickets cost £10 and the charity receives 100% of the profits from all of the tickets it sells.
Canary Wharf believe that this is the first event of its kind in the UK. It already has sponsorship from London’s Evening Standard newspaper. It also has a working population of 65,000 and is visited by shoppers from across London and the South East, so the event could attract a large audience.
Tickets will be supplied to the charities by Canary Wharf and they are asked to sell them directly. All charities taking part will also receive an equal share of all tickets sold on Canary Wharf’s retail Web site as well as those bought at Canary Wharf’s post office.
Charities interested in participating should contact Shirley McGovern.


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India’s Business Standard web site has reported that SRP Electronica Group is expanding production of tungsten metal powder and setting up a new plant at Sinnar near Nashik, India.
SRP Electronic has invested Rs 5 crore (approx. US $812,000) in the new facility, which has installed capacity of 10 tonnes per month. The company is utilising a solvent extraction process for extracting tungsten from scrap, a first in India states the report.
S R Pophale, Chairman, SRP Electronica stated, “The new business of tungsten manufacturing was a logical and much required backward integration for us as we have been present in the manufacturing of tungsten carbide products for the last 20 years.”
“The tungsten powder manufactured here shall act as a basic raw material for our Group Company, Electronica Tough Carb Limited. Defence and other tungsten product manufacturers will also be clients of this new business,” added Pophale.
There is a growing requirement for tungsten products in the Indian market in industrial applications and also defence applications, where it has been identified as a strategic material for defence needs. The Indian market size of tungsten metal powder is 150 tonnes per month, states the report. Currently most of the tungsten is imported from China.


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Recently the U.S. trade representative signed a multinational trade deal called the Trans Pacific Partnership. To be finalized, Congress has to ratify it.
[Steve Charter| February, 15 2016 |Independent Record]
As a rancher, I am not only concerned by the TPP, I am outraged by what it would mean to this country. I can’t help but see through the empty logic that our own industry is using to support this deal.
Since NAFTA was signed in 1994, the average annual U.S. agricultural trade deficit with Mexico and Canada has more than doubled to $800 million, and our cattle herd has shrunk significantly.
Since NAFTA we have seen imports of diseased Canadian cattle, have been forced to keep the borders open to their herd, and sacrificed the health of the entire American cattle herd and U.S. population.
Also, because of NAFTA we had to reverse country-of-origin labeling, an overwhelmingly popular law to label where U.S. meat is from.
The TPP is known as NAFTA on steroids. We are setting up the U.S. to face these challenges and lose our sovereign rights with 9 more countries.
Some of my fellow ranchers are excited by the idea of access to more markets without tariffs, yet they don’t connect that the TPP doesn’t prevent currency manipulation. This simply means that countries are still able to effectively manipulate the price of your meat or wheat, at their own will.
Tell the Montana delegation NO on TPP.


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LONDON (CBS.MW) - U.S. stock futures bounced off overnight losses after the August employment report showed jobs growth snapped back in August after two disappointing months.
Jobs grew an as-expected 144,000, the Labor Department estimated. The unemployment rate fell by a tenth percentage point to 5.4 percent, the lowest since October 2001.
The well-received report countered an as much 7 percent slide in chipmaker Intel Corp.
Intel's cautionary comments centered on an inventory correction with some of its customers, but it also attributed weaker overall demand. The outlook was expected to weigh on the PC and hardware makers as well as chip equipment makers.
Shares dropped 7.4 percent to $20.03 on Instinet; the Nasdaq 100s tracker
"Intel pointed to modest worldwide weakness in PC demand more weighted to the consumer/retail PC segment than the enterprise segment," Piper Jaffray noted.
The broker said it believes "a rise in consumer-related inventories (and subsequent workdown in August) at Hewlett-Packard was possibly the primary source of consumer weakness at Intel."
Among the European chip-related stocks chip equipment maker ASML
In Asian markets, Tokyo Electron
Taiwan's benchmark index tumbled 1.6 percent, led by techs. Taiwan Semiconductor


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Something strange has brewed over at the Asurion website. The enrollment form, the one people use to apply for replacement devices, seems to have one “DROID Bionic 2” listed underneath Motorola phones. This name hasn’t been in the rumor mill at all until now, and Droid-Life makes a pretty good point that the Motorola DROID RAZR has multiple entries for different colors, and the DROID Bionic does technically come in two versions – one without a 16GB microSD card and a retired one with a microSD card. The “Bionic 2” could refer to that. Or it could be a devastating mistake by Asurion resulting in the mobile world’s acknowledgement of a follow-up to the original. Either way, only time will tell what the case is.
stars Popular this Weeklaunch
The Really Blue Google Pixel’s white display housing was a little too iPod Touch for our tastes. So instead of living with it, we decided to swap it out with a black one. Here’s how.
more_vertNew Android 7.1 Nougat emoji's
Android 7.1 Nougat adds a whole slew of new emoji’s in addition to those that were included with Android 7.0 Nougat.
more_vertSamsung confirms the Galaxy Note 8
Although many reports suggested that Samsung may end up killing off the Galaxy Note 8 after the debacle that was the Galaxy Note 7, it seems that we will have a new Note device next year.
more_vertThe Gear S3 will be released on time
Despite rumors which claimed Samsung would be delaying the release of its latest smartwatch, the Gear S3, these rumors have seemingly been debunked.
more_vertGoogle shuffles its Store lineup
Google has removed a few smartwatches and the Chromebook Flip from its store, but have added 2 new smartwatches, a fitness tracker, and a Philips Hue Starter Kit.
more_vertGalaxy S8 spec rumors
Samsung has officially moved on from the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle. The Samsung Galaxy S8 is the next major phone on the horizon. We’ve already heard a fair share about this upcoming device.
A new report suggests the total cost of materials for the new Pixel XL is less than $300, yet the manufacturing cost compared to its sales price is in line with the iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge.
Google finally confirms the Pixel camera’s excessive lens flaring, saying a future software should help alleviate the problem. They also want everyone to stop with the hardware exchanges, as this issue isn’t a hardware defect.
more_vertV20 vs iPhone 7 dual cameras
The V20 has 16MP and 8MP cameras, the iPhone has two 12MP cameras. Just because both devices have dual-cameras doesn’t mean they do the same thing.


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Panera Bread Co. has rolled out a “hidden” menu featuring protein-rich, healthy foods, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. The menu isn’t being promoted in the chain’s bakery cafés; customers in the know just have to tell a Panera employee that they want to order off the hidden menu.
After a trial run in New York City in November, the hidden menu rolled out to locations nationwide on Jan. 2. Panera also has been alerting customers about the menu through the MyPanera rewards program and on social media, the Journal reported.
The menu features six items, including the power breakfast egg white bowl with roasted turkey, power breakfast egg bowl with steak, power Mediterranean chicken salad, power Mediterranean roasted turkey salad, power chicken hummus bowl and the power steak lettuce wrap.
Panera aims to highlight protein and limit processed carbohydrates with the hidden menu, providing customers a variety of dietary options outside the chain’s existing menu, according to a statement.


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Due to a bug, Twitter API keys may have been exposed, as per the warning that comes from the company officials.
The goods news is that the apps, tokens, and the main social media platform do not appear to have been compromised.
Furthermore, the social media giant has swiftly moved on to address these cyber security issues that are now fixed.
Before the fix was applied, using a shared or publicly accessible computer to view your app keys by visiting developer.twitter.com meant that during the session, the computer would store access keys and tokens.
Although temporary in nature, these access keys and tokens could have been scraped by a tech-savvy individual who knew what they were looking for.
Ameet Naik, security expert at PerimeterX, explained the way how these APIs work.
Allegedly, there is an online industry worth hundred of billions of dollars that relies on these APIs for access and functionality purposes.
As such, it is not hard to see why obtaining these API credentials would be of interest to a hacker who could go on to exploit them.
Oftentimes, leaked API keys and security tokens are posted on the dark web.
Once in the wild, hackers might include them as part of their hacking campaigns that involve automated attacks against API endpoints.
PerimeterX conducted relevant research that shows a frightening 75% of login requests from API endpoints have malicious intents.
What is more worrying, as Naik reveals, is that API attacks are not only easier to execute from a technical standpoint, they are also harder to detect compared to browser botnet attacks.
He proceeded to advise the developers to take the steps necessary to protect their API keys — key vaults are a good place to start.
In an effort to prevent other similar bugs in the future, Twitter has decided to change how caching works on developers’ browsers so it will not store any account information.


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For the Second time, an Apple employee has been accused of stealing confidential information about their autonomous car program, a program that has been kept mostly confidential. Jizhong Chen was caught with confidential information on a personal hard drive. This employee was found with approximately 100 pictures and thousands of confidential documents pertaining to this program. The employee claimed that this was to apply to internal jobs within Apple, which turned out to only be half true, as he also applied to a few external jobs, including one with one of Apple’s main competitors in the autonomous vehicle space. Even if this was not done on purpose, Apple is taking the employees negligence extremely seriously and opening an FBI investigation.
This incident raises concerns within Apple. One key differentiator with Apple is their lack of major leaks. In the past, they have been known to go to drastic measures to protect their information. Now that they have had two scares in the last year, people around the company are becoming increasingly worried about the safety of their information. Apple cannot function without having a level of trust in its employees, but leaks like this are becoming more and more common, so something has to be done. Apple sales are declining in most of their products, so the autonomous vehicle has lots of pressure to perform well. With more potential leaks happening every year, Apple may have a serious problem on their hands.


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This article is more than 1 year old
AT&T cops to Jesus Phone-as-modem app
Eat your heart out, NetShare
Why was NetShare - the app that turns the Jesus Phone into a modem - yanked from the Apple App Store? AT&T and Apple have tethering app plans of their own.
During an on-stage interview at a conference in San Francisco yesterday, AT&T CEO Ralph De La Vega said the mega telco is working with Steve Jobs to deliver an official Jesus Phone tether in the not-too-distant future.
He did not say how much the app would cost. But AT&T charges around $60 a month for other tethering plans. And you can rest assured the company will charge more than you'll pay for today's jailbroken Jesus Phone tethering apps - which are completely free.
This summer, Apple inexplicably pulled Nullriver's Netshare app from the iPhone App Store, de-pulled it, and then pulled it again. By mid-September, Nullriver announced that Jobs and cult had apparently banned iPhone-as-modem apps from its online protection racket.
AT&T - which has an exclusive on the iPhone here in the States - currently forbids tethering on Steve Jobs' handheld status symbol, though it does provide its own app for the CrackBerry.
"Unlimited plans (except for Data Connect and BlackBerry tethered) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device (through use of, including without limitation, connection kits, other phone/PDA-to-computer accessories, Bluetooth, or any other wireless technology) to laptops, PCs, or other equipment for any purpose," reads the telcos terms of service. ®